Zoe Ball has told how she has begged her husband Fatboy Slim not to even think about staging another free beach party.

Speaking at the Kerrang! awards, held at the Park Lane Hilton, London, she also told how Norman Cook was so devastated by the criticism he had to get away from Brighton.

The DJ faced a barrage of complaints after the event Beach Boutique II brought chaos as more than 250,000 attended the event.

It had been expected up to 60,000 people would turn up but police were caught off-guard by the turn-out.

Rail and road systems were swamped and the beach was left covered in broken bottles and litter.

Zoe said: "I think the Press gave him a hard time about it. No one says that about Glastonbury.

"I'm not sure if he would do it again but when someone asked him last week there was a twinkle in his eye.

"But I've said to him 'please don't do it again'. He was terribly hurt by all the criticism for what was, after all, a free party.

"We just flew out to Spain for a week to put it behind us."